We Forgot to Add the Fillings

I rarely purchase ice cream at the grocery store for consumption at home. Very rare occasions do I ever do so and they normally are centered on needing the ice cream for a different reason. It’s not that I don’t love ice cream it’s just that I never eat it fast enough. Ice cream belongs to the freezer faster than you would ever imagine. Unless I have help from Mommy and Taylor on eating the ice cream, my little 1/4 cup serving is just not going to cut it. I did end up purchasing a half-gallon of ice cream this past weekend for Superbowl Sunday. My dessert for the evening was to be Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches. So, naturally I had to purchase ice cream.

Ice cream is really expensive. Even on sale, the 1/2 gallon I got was $3.50. And I purchased store-brand. Jeez. I opted on Publix Cookie Dough Ice Cream. I thought having cookie dough within your chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich would be fun. I prepared my ice cream sandwiches and was still left with about 3/4 of the 1/2 gallon container. So, I have been slowly but surely having my 1/4 cup every night this week. I have had Publix ice cream in the past (Buckeyes Fudge, Key Lime Pie, Moose Tracks, etc) and have found it to be quite good. This 1/2 gallon of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, while not bad, is just not that fabulous. I feel like Publix is trying to say to me, “We Forgot to Add the Fillings.”

I measure out my 1/4 cup of ice cream and then place it in a small bowl. I seem to have a problem when I consume too much dairy so I like to measure it all out. A 1/4 cup of ice cream and a 1/2 cup of milk are pretty much my daily max out point. While scooping out the ice cream, I notice that there are not a lot of big chunks. Anywhere. I see a few random pieces of cookie dough and chocolate chips but not really all too many. I don’t think much of it at first because perhaps the fillings are hiding within the ice cream awaiting my mouth to make themselves appear.

As I begin to eat, I find the ice cream itself to by extremely soft and smooth. The ice cream is described as Cookie Dough ice cream however, it tastes like simple vanilla to me. I love how smooth the ice cream is and how it slowly melts in my mouth. Every bite produces the same great product and I do give props to Publix for this. Far too often, containers of ice cream are hard and gross as soon as you purchase them. Publix manages to keep their ice cream quite smooth. The flavor is not overbearing but rather a nice, simple vanilla. Vanilla is not my favorite but Publix does a good job at it.

As for the fillings, I do not come to find many more as I eat. The few pieces I originally saw while scooping, seem to be all that is within the ice cream itself. The chocolate chips are not chips but rather pieces. They have a slight chocolate taste but, they aren’t that great. In my 1/4 cup serving, I maybe receive three chocolate pieces. The addition of more chocolate would help to give this ice cream more flavor and textures. The few pieces that I get are okay but I can’t say anything greater than that.

It seems as if the cookie dough pieces are lacking as well. I receive one or, if I’m lucky, two cookie dough pieces per 1/4 cup serving. The pieces are pretty small and very hard in texture. I have to allow the cookie dough to sit in my mouth for a few moments before I can even eat it. And, the kicker is, the cookie dough pieces are described as ‘soft’ on the container. Hah! Other cookie dough pieces from other ice creams, are normally pretty substantial and tasty. Publix cookie dough just isn’t. It is lacking in flavor and the texture really ruins it for me. I eat it but I am not wowed by it at all.

It is really too bad that Publix Forgot to Add the Fillings in this ice cream. I don’t think I can say that I would certainly like it more if they did add more. The ice cream itself is great but the chips are lacking flavor and the cookie dough texture is just too hard. After spending $3.50 for a 1/2 gallon, I think I would rather put this towards a different ice cream variety. I have never had a problem with Publix Ice Cream in the past but will certainly be avoiding this flavor in the future. And next time I decide to buy ice cream, all of the fillings better be there!